Aurora Delays Vote On Fee Hike

June 21, 1989|By Nancy Ryan.

At the request of the Greater Aurora Chamber of Commerce, the Aurora City Council agreed Tuesday night to postpone action to more than double the fee developers pay school and park districts in lieu of land donations.

Although the chamber`s builders and developers committee reviewed the proposal to increase the fee to $25,000 from $12,000 per donated acre eight months ago, a letter from the chamber asked the council to postpone action for 30 days to allow area developers to study the proposal. The council agreed without discussion at its pre-council meeting to postpone the vote until July 5.

``Our knowledge and understanding of the proposal is extremely limited,`` chamber President Steven Hatcher wrote to the council last week. ``Therefore, we would ask your consideration of tabling council action while we become educated on the subject and the implications for the business community.`` No representatives from the chamber attended Tuesday`s meeting.

The chamber made the request despite previous assurances from city officials that the proposal would not mean a significant increase from what developers currently are paying.

A land-cash donation program requires developers to contribute a percentage of the development`s land to the appropriate school or park district to help defray the districts` added costs caused by development. Developers have an option of donating cash, based on the amount of land required to be given, instead of actual land.

Aurora`s land-cash donation formula for both the current and proposed system is based on statistics for the average number of household members in Aurora, according to City Planner Paul Rasmussen.

The ordinance package set for a vote Tuesday contained, in addition to the fee increase, revised statistics showing a lower average household size. The average number of people in an Aurora home has decreased to 2.81 in 1986 from 3.04 in 1970. As a result, the developer`s fee would end up close to what would have been calculated under the current ordinance, Rasmussen said.